Terrifying Drug Trial

Ye Qin stood among the crowd of children, silently watching Grand Steward Zhang on the platform. He felt a sense of familiarity, and upon closer inspection, realized this was none other than the same Grand Steward Zhang he had seen at the side gate of the Herb Gathering Hall mansion yesterday, accepting a purse of money from an old country squire.

Ye Qin glanced at the chubby boy from afar, wondering to himself how Grand Steward Zhang would look after him.

Ye Qin also desperately hoped to become a herb-gathering apprentice and live a life free from hunger, but he was not foolish enough to step forward and sign this life-or-death contract. He wanted to see exactly what this medicine testing entailed.

The other children were also suspicious and fearful, not daring to step forward easily.

The chubby boy was quite bold; he was the first to run forward, shouting, "I'll do it, I'll be the first to test the medicine." Relying on the fact that his father had once given money to Grand Steward Zhang, he had no fear of the test.

Soon, several other children of squires also ran out, volunteering to be the first batch of test subjects.

Seeing that only a few had responded and that more than half were still missing, Grand Steward Zhang was not in a hurry. He smiled and announced loudly that anyone who entered the wooden huts to test the medicine first would be rewarded with a fragrant, large chicken leg once they were finished.

Once this temptation was offered, dozens of children immediately scrambled to volunteer. For these children from impoverished backgrounds, a single chicken leg was enough to lure them into taking the risk.

Grand Steward Zhang pointed to five or six of them, had them join the squires' children to press their handprints on the life-or-death contracts, and then sent them into the small wooden huts to test the medicine.

The wooden huts were half-closed, and inside each one sat a middle-aged man supervising the process.

The ten children entered the huts and, under the supervision of the middle-aged men, swallowed whatever was given to them.

Hundreds of children outside watched from a distance; they could see a little of what was happening inside, though not very clearly. They all stretched their necks, holding their breath in anticipation.

The process of testing the medicine was long.

For the first quarter of an hour, there was no reaction from any of the ten huts, which began to stir anxiety.

It wasn't until half an hour later that a shrill, miserable cry suddenly erupted from one of the huts. The child inside ran out frantically, foaming at the mouth, his entire body flushed and swollen, screaming, "Help me, save me!"

However, the young men and women maintained cold expressions, with not a single one intending to intervene.

The hundreds of children were shocked into a daze, looking toward Grand Steward Zhang on the high platform, hoping he would step in to save the boy.

Grand Steward Zhang sat steadily on the platform, smiling as he puffed on a large green bamboo pipe. He said indifferently, "Medicine testing is purely voluntary; life and death have nothing to do with others! Those who are poisoned by fewer than nine stalks do not qualify as apprentices of this sect, and even if they die from the poison, no one will save them. Only those who consume nine stalks or more and become our apprentices are worth saving."

The child foaming at the mouth collapsed to the ground right before everyone's eyes. He did not die immediately, but continued to convulse violently.

The hundreds of children in the square, even the boldest boys, felt a chill run through them, their hair standing on end. As for the young girls, their faces turned deathly pale, and they began to cry in terror. They now understood that this medicine testing could kill, and the deaths were horrific.

In less than an hour, children from four more huts ran out in sheer terror before collapsing on the ground. The poisons they had ingested were all different. Some showed no outward signs, yet suffered from an unbearable itch that made them nearly tear their own skin apart. Others were covered in red bumps, festering with pus and foul-smelling sores. One little girl walked out of her hut unsteadily, said nothing, then spat out a mouthful of black blood and collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Ye Qin looked around in a daze. At least half of the hundreds of children in the square were wailing in terror, while another portion were so scared they had lost control of their bladders. The remaining dozen or so bold children were just as lost and bewildered as he was. A few children tried to flee, only to be caught by the surrounding silk-clad youths and beaten publicly until they cried for their parents.

By the morning, the first batch of ten children had all finished.

One child from a poor family had died from a potent poison, and Grand Steward Zhang ordered his men to carry the body to the mass grave in the wilderness ten miles outside the county town. Four others had been poisoned but survived; they were driven out of the mansion, and if they could find a doctor in time, they might have a chance at survival. Three others had been mildly poisoned; though they were not in immediate danger, they had lost their eligibility to join the Herb Gathering Hall and were also cast out.

The chubby boy had been poisoned until his face was covered in mottled spots; he had wet his pants in terror and was staring blankly, muttering incoherently, "Daddy... Daddy, where are you?" It seemed he was not far from being frightened into madness.

Ye Qin noticed that Grand Steward Zhang suddenly reached out and shoved a small pill into the chubby boy's mouth before ordering the silk-clad youths to escort him away. It seemed the hundreds of silver coins from the old squire had at least had some effect.

Those rejected children who were driven out were sternly warned by the silk-clad youths to keep their mouths shut. If they dared to mention the medicine testing to anyone, the youths would "visit" their families and teach them a lesson. Terrified, the children dared not refuse and nodded, promising never to speak of what happened inside the Herb Gathering Hall.

Of the first ten, only one passed. He was a twelve-year-old commoner boy who had consumed ten stalks of herbs and barely survived the test. He was officially inducted as an apprentice of the Herb Gathering Hall and rewarded with a chicken leg.

The boy who passed was pale, his legs weak, and his entire body trembling—not from the poison, but from the sheer terror of the experience.

In the afternoon, the testing continued. This time, not a single child was willing to go; everyone knew this was a death trap. A whole chicken, let alone a single leg, wouldn't be enough to tempt them. They began to cry and shout, demanding to leave.

Grand Steward Zhang sneered; it was easy to enter the gates of the Herb Gathering Hall, but leaving was another matter entirely.

He signaled to the youths.

The silk-clad youths immediately lunged into the crowd of children, agilely grabbing ten of them. They dragged them before the high platform, forced their hands down to press their red handprints onto the life-or-death contracts, and shoved them into the wooden huts.

Ye Qin had spent over half a year wandering and begging throughout the county town, long ago learning the cruelty of human nature and how to read the room. He had been keeping his eyes on Grand Steward Zhang and the youths. The moment he sensed something was wrong, he shrank back and retreated, hiding deep within the crowd of hundreds of children, narrowly avoiding the youths who were grabbing people.

His face was pale. In terms of courage, he was among the bolder of the hundreds of children. But facing these silk-clad youths who possessed martial arts, he could only stand there, stunned, trying his best to hide in the depths of the crowd to avoid being caught.